Name: Modern Potato Pasty
Ingredients: 2 to 3 pounds mutton cutlets; flour for dredging; coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste; cayenne pepper to taste; broth or water (enough to make gravy); 1 tablespoon mushroom catsup or Harvey's sauce; good potatoes (enough to form a 3-inch thick crust); 1 ounce butter; 1 to 2 tablespoons milk or cream

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mushroom + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together968 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton cutlets: Provide the meat that cooks slowly in the covered mold, becoming tender in the gravy.
Potatoes: Form a mashed crust that seals in steam and browns lightly on the surface.
Butter: Adds richness and fat to the mashed potato topping, improving its flavor and smoothness.
Milk or cream: Adds moisture to the mashed potatoes so they become smooth and spreadable.
Flour: Lightly coats the cutlets, helping the surface brown and slightly thickening the gravy.
Mushroom catsup or harvey's sauce: Adds savory, umami depth to the gravy around the meat.

The step that matters

Keep the cover on during baking. Lifting the cover releases the steam that cooks the meat and keeps the gravy moist, so the cutlets can dry out or cook unevenly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, pepper, mushroom, butter, milk):

Potatothe original
Shallotfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, pepper, mushroom, butter, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Modern Potato Pasty